Port Authority: Just a misunderstanding

The New York and New Jersey AAA chapters are suing to eliminate the toll hikes approved in September for all Hudson River crossings on all classes of vehicles, which they say are illegal if the new revenues are not used to fund transportation projects from which drivers will benefit directly.

Sinclair said the PA is in damage-control mode because of what he termed contradictory testimony on Dec. 8.

“I think what happened prompted them to realize that they have made some very serious public relations gaffes in the past and need to do something to assuage the ill will of the public,” Sinclair said.

The PA’s board of directors reached an agreement in September with Gov. Cuomo and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey on a plan to pay for a 10-year, $25.1 billion capital improvement program that included bridge and tunnel maintenance and increased security.

Part of the PA’s argument during the hearing process was the need to offset more than $2 billion in cost overruns at the former site of the World Trade Center, which ther PA owns.

Last week, however, PA lawyers told Judge Richard Holwell that all revenue raised by the toll hikes would go directly to transportation projects.

The PA did not respond directly when asked last week if that represented a change in plan, and where else the agency intended to get funding for rebuilding the site.

In an email to the Chronicle, the PA released a partial transcript of a press conference featuring Patrick Foye, the Cuomo-appointed executive director of the PA, and David Samson, its chairman.

When questioned about the apparent conflict between testimony given during hearings and later in court, Foye said PA statements made at both times were “consistent and true.” Samson said he could not comment on details of the litigation or statements made in court.

He said members of the public must have misunderstood what the agency said just before raising the tolls earlier this year, which included mention of the WTC site when discussing the PA’s financial situation as a whole.

“There was to my knowledge, no reference, no specific statements that said the proposed toll and fare increases were going to some other use or some other place than ... the integrated transportation network,” Samson said. “So do I think there was a consistency? Yes. Do I regret that somebody may have misunderstood that in some public statements? If there was a misunderstanding on the point of view of the listener, sure I regret that. But I’m not aware of any statement that was made by this agency that is incorrect or which now someone is arguing as a matter of a litigation strategy is inconsistent.”

But in just one instance — at the top of a press release dated Aug. 5 — the agency cited the cost of rebuilding the trade center as one of several “unprecidented challenges” that prompted the fare hilkes.

The PA did not, however, include the WTC in an attached list of projects it said were contingent on the hikes.

This week, Foye said WTC site funding is coming from borrowing, grants, insurance and private investment.

Sinclair, the AAA spokesman, said the lawsuit already has prompted some changes at the PA. Last week the agency posted the name and salary of every employee, revealing that some were able to apprximately double their salaries through overtime and other compensation.

Under pressure from Cuomo and Christie to do a more thorough auditing of its books since September, the PA announced on Dec. 8 — the day of court arguments — that it had hired KPMG LLP as its new outside auditing firm.

The Port Authority had used Deloitte LLP and its earlier incranations like Deloitte & Touche, for its annual audit for more than 30 years.